Puzzle Solved: Why am I seeking this vehicle in my neighborhood…

If you see a UDC vehicle with workers inspecting electric poles in your neighborhood they are part of an Eversource Field Connectivity and Phase Verification project underway in Western Mass according to the UDC website.

UDC is working with Eversource as they strive “to enhance and update Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data in preparation of designating the GIS as their System of Record to support the implementation of an Enterprise Outage Management System and future grid modernization initiatives” according to the UDC website.

UDC will provide Eversource with overhead field data that is required for use with the Outage Management System (OMS) and Distribution Management System (DMS) in the western part of the state according to the website.

UDC crews have recently been in the neighborhood of the Townsquare Media building in Pittsfield and will be in your neighborhood soon if they have not yet surveyed the electric distribution poles already in your neighborhood. UDC is checking the customer to transformer conductivity for every Eversource transformer. Phasing, GPS locations of all secondary and service poles, and the routes of service paths from the transformer to the customer will also be surveyed. Once the data is surveyed and verified the data will be imported back to the source Geographic Information System.

The Field Connectivity Survey and Phase Verification projects began in April and are expected to conclude by the end of 2021.  We understand much of this information is technical and we reached out to both EDC and Eversource for an explanation in simple terms as to what exactly this project will be used for but at press time, we did not hear back from either company.

According to the UDC website, Eversource provides power to more than 220,000 electric customers in Western Mass and operates in 3 states serving 4.3 million electric and natural gas customers.